Humanism, Secularism, Feminism

Taslima Nasreen

Taslima Nasreen, an award-winning writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasreen’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller’s list.

Taslima Nasreen was born in Bangladesh. She started writing when she was 13. Her writings won the hearts of people across the border and she landed with the prestigious literary award Ananda from India in 1992. Taslima won The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 1994. She received the Kurt Tucholsky Award from Swedish PEN, the Simone de Beauvoir Award and Human Rights Award from Government of France, Le Prix de l' Edit de Nantes from the city of Nantes, France, Academy prize from the Royal Academy of arts, science and literature from Belgium. She is a Humanist Laureate in The International Academy for Humanism,USA. She won Distinguished Humanist Award from International Humanist and Ethical Union, Free-thought Heroine award from Freedom From Religion foundation, USA., IBKA award, Germany,and Feminist Press Award, USA . She got the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh prize for Promotion of the Tolerance and Non-violence in 2005. She received the Medal of honor of Lyon. She got honorary citizenship from Paris, Nantes, Lyon, Metz, Thionville, Esch etc. Taslima was awarded the Condorcet-Aron Prize at the “Parliament of the French Community of Belgium” in Brussels and Ananda literary award again in 2000.

Bestowed with honorary doctorates from Gent University and UCL in Belgium, and American University of Paris and Paris Diderot University in France, she has addressed gatherings in major venues of the world like the European Parliament, National Assembly of France, Universities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc. She got fellowships as a research scholar at Harvard and New York Universities. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the USA in 2009.

Taslima has written 35 books in Bengali, which includes poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different languages. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh. Because of her thoughts and ideas she has been banned, blacklisted and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. She has been prevented by the authorities from returning to her country since 1994, and to West Bengal since 2007.

EVENTS

Hate culture

Muslim fanatics hate almost everybody. They hate Jews, Christians, Hindus, Pagans, Atheists and many other communities. They even hate Muslims. If they happen to be Sunnis, they hate Shi’ites , Ahmadiyyas, Baha’is etc. They hate Buddhists too. In Bangladesh, Muslims and Buddhists usually live together peacefully. But Muslims get already angry with Buddhists this year because Buddhists in Myanmar tortured Myanmar’s minority Rohingya Muslims. When Hindus in India demolished an Indian mosque in 1992, Muslim fanatics in Bangladesh demolished the houses and temples of Bangladesh’s minority Hindus. Quite a weird revenge!

Buddhists in Bangladesh make up 1% of the population. The houses and temples of Buddhists have been burned down by Muslim fanatics a few days ago because a Buddhist man posted a photo defaming the Quran on Facebook. The man who was blamed for the photo said it was not his fault, an unknown man tagged the photo on his Facebook profile. Whatever the truth is, intolerance seems to love reaching it’s peak.

Bamiyan Buddhas were dynamited and destroyed in Afghanistan in 2001 by the Taliban. Talibanization has emerged in almost all Muslim countries. Hate culture is becoming alarmingly popular.

I sometimes think moderate Muslims are like gods. People believe they exist, but actually they do not. If they existed, there would have been a mass movement against Islamic terrorism. The situation is probably not that bad. They exist, but they are just a whole bunch of nothing.

Comments

As You said that in Myanmar Buddhist are in majority. And some days ago they assassinated a large Numbers of Muslims. Was that not ‘Hate”? and in India which the largest democracy and Secular country and they Destroyed Babri Mosque and also has been assassinating Muslim minorities since 1947. Was that Love? The world is “give and take” If anyone love Muslims or any other community he will gain love against it on the other side if anyone hate someone he will take………….. The world is also Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion. If anyone take action against someone he should have the potential to face reaction. If Non-Muslims tease Muslims direct(war) or indirect(Burn Quran, Destroy Mosques, draw sketches etc.)then Muslims will show their reaction and what will the Intensity of that reaction? nobody knows.

So Buddhists in Bangladesh are responsible for the behaviour of Buddhists in Myanmar?
While I can understand (but not condone) attacking diplomats to avenge the deeds of the country they represent, attacking individuals whose only “crime” was to be born into a religion to avenge (sometimes merely perceived) crimes of people in another country is beyond comprehension.

Thanks for the article. Obviously, a lot of people are used as pawns in a game played by the leaders of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Turkey, Saudi-Arabia etc.

Still, it is disheartening to see that individuals who are not themselves affected by these atrocities use them as the reason to inflict atrocities on individuals who did not perpetrate them. Whatever the history and complexity of the situation, this remains beyond comprehension.

The same thing goes for us. If you defile us, we will retaliate. There is no room for Muslim backwardness in our society. You must all go and leave us alone. This is not your country. Muslims hate everyone. they even hate other Muslims. they beat women as if they have this right. I don’t hate anyone, but I want Muslims to stay away. Otherwise, we will destroy you.

I am a moderate Muslim n I know that people like me (n we r the majority) think that someone who has done such evil things as mentioned above cannot consider themselves any type of Muslim. Islam is a religion of peace n tolerance.. No matter how loud or frequent the extremists may shout they will never change that.. They r delusional if they think they r doing the right thing.. Harming people in the name of Islam n justice is not what prophet Muhammad has taught us by his example..

Any kind of belief in gods is delusional. So both extremists and moderate Muslims (and Buddhists and Hindus and Christians etc) are all suffering under delusions. The problem is that, although one group is clearly much more dangerous than the other, because they are both acting on the basis of belief in an imaginary god, they have no reality-based way of verifying which of them is actually acting in accordance with such a god’s wishes. This is why you simply cannot say that the violent extremist Muslims are somehow not ‘really’ Muslims, any more than you could have said to the Christians who were burning heretics and beheading witches for centuries in Europe were not ‘real’ Christians. Unless you can come up with good evidence to prove to the extremists that your god exists, and that your interpretation of its wishes is correct, then they have no less evidence than you do that their interpretation is correct.

The ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy will not wash: it is not enough to say they’re not really Muslims; you have to be able to prove that they are wrong and you are right – and if you cannot do that, then you ought to repudiate the entire project of being religious at all.

Hate culture is not restricted to religious fanatics. Here in UK we have very popular ‘Red Top’ papers often run by rightwingers that pander to peoples’ fear of immigrants, refugees, homeless, sexual minorities, users of illegal drugs, minority religions, and even certain individuals.
This is very important to set the tone of political debate so that rich people can blame poor people for world poverty.
It is very good for the ruling class to have hate figures such as former firebrand Finsbury Park mosque leader Hamza, because it takes up ‘News-Space’ which might otherwise be used to cover Syria.
Hate culture is easily spread, like infectious or industrial diseases. The epidemiology has become more complex in a wired world, but at the same time it becomes easier to expose certain types of lies and corruption which often lead to people exploiting other peoples’ fears for their own selfish means.

The so-called “moderates” in any cult will support the extremists – overtly or covertly – because the “moderates” are getting what they want without having to endanger themselves (vis a vis, fundamentalist christians and their financial support of anti-abortion terrorism).

“If they existed, there would have been a mass movement against Islamic terrorism.”

Don’t you think, there ought to be a mass movement to stop hatred towards a religious sect in the first place? The rest will fall into places. And its not the responsibility of a moderate, liberal etc muslim. But of the human society in common. Out of humanity, people should come out to oppose hatred towards ANY community, RELIGION, sect, caste; irrespective of the group one falls into.